Good morning, everyone.

Today is Thursday, June 4th, 2026.

It's 8 31 a.m.

I call to order the Financial Administrative Committee.

Would you please rise?

Member Clark, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I believe.

Which is fans.

One nation under that indivisible with Liberty and Justice Bro.

We did receive in accordance with our policy a request for remote participation from Vice Chair Parek due to uh work.

Uh we did receive advanced notice from member Maine that she's not here due to a non-qualifying meetings uh reason.

So she will not be participating in votes, but she might be joining us for some of the discussion.

Uh and I think that's all the notices we have today.

Uh so can we please have a roll call?

Yes, member clerk.

Chair Frank?

Here.

Member Hewitt.

Yeah.

Member Maine is absent.

Vice Chair Park.

Chair.

Member Peterson.

Member Volitzik.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

We'll proceed.

Do we have any addenda?

Uh staff would request item 8.1.

And item 11.1 be postponed to the next F and A committee meeting.

Okay.

And so we're postponing it because the attachment was not posted.

So doesn't meet with the public posting requirements.

So motion to postpone those two items by member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Comments or questions.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Those items are postponed to the next meeting.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comments?

We do not.

Okay.

I have no chairs' remarks except to also note uh when we get to the end of our agenda.

We're gonna modify some of those items.

Um accordingly, just like with the minutes, we also don't have closed session minutes to review, so we won't be taking action on closed session minutes.

So 10.2 and 11.1 will remove uh or postpone action on those when we get to that.

11.1 was I just included it in that request.

So we're I think we're all good.

We won't be doing 10.2.

Got it.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

I have no other remarks.

We have no unfinished business.

Our new business begins with our consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.25.

Motion by member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Any items we need to pull or discuss further.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, those items are approved.

8.26 is a resolution authorizing a contract with alliance insurance services of Chicago for insurance broker services for an initial one-year contract plus four additional one-year renewals in the annual amount of 79,500.

Motion to approve this item by member Hewitt, second by member Clark.

Good morning.

Good morning, Erica Osinski, risk manager.

Good morning, Yvette Albert, purchasing manager.

Um thank you.

Uh so we're here today to request authorization for the new insurance broker contract with Alliant Insurance Services.

Contract will consist of an initial one-year contract with an option of four additional one-year renewals at the annual fee of $79,500.

Um, this fee includes policy renewal, which includes preparation, guidance, uh, execution going to market for to find the best possible price and the best possible coverage for us.

Uh processing, certificates of insurance, claims advocacy, policy management, and risk control expertise and loss prevention assistance.

Any questions?

Thank you for the overview.

I just might actually my question I'm just so does it also include when you say like claim support and things.

So if there's like a like an actual per claims question, like if somebody had something denied or something, or this is this like I was just trying to think about so the um the risk broker kind of works with our TPA on high risk, high level claims if there's any kind of coverage opinion.

They might be denying in the access level, they'll work with them for uh to advocate for us as to why it should be covered.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Erica, I'm sorry if you said this already.

I was reading a different item on the agenda.

How does this cost compare to the previous brokerage costs?

Same broker.

It is uh it has increased since.

Um exactly what it was before.

It was 73.

Okay.

Before.

Yeah.

Uh but I will say that the uh the other one of the other interviewers was comparable, and the other was even exceeding this.

So any other comments or questions?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

8.26 is approved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

8.27 is a resolution authorizing a collective bargaining agreement between the Lake County Board, the Lake County Sheriff's Office, and the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, Chapter 777, correctional sergeants unit.

Motion to approve by member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Good morning.

Good morning, Darcy Edcock, HR director.

Caitlin Everett, deputy HR director.

Um, good morning.

Thank you for having us.

So today before you is a resolution uh authorizing a successor agreement between the Lake County Board, Sheriff's Office, and MAP Correctional Sergeants unit.

Um it is a three-year agreement dated retroactively to December 1st, 2025, and covers 17 employees.

So this unit's wages have never been directly tied to the correctional officers before, similar to the way that the deputies are tied to the sergeants on the law enforcement side.

So we've developed a shared understanding with the unit that there needs to be a differential between the top correctional officer wage and the um sergeants, especially considering the large increases that were received by the correctional officers in their last contract.

It's really caused some compression issues that we were hoping to address.

So after some review of market comparables, internal comparables on the law enforcement side, and productive discussion with the unit, uh the county has agreed to implement a climbing differential over the span of the contract.

Uh in year one, the differential between the top correctional officer rate and the promotional sergeant rate will be six percent.

In years two and three, the differential is going to increase to eight percent.

This will allow us to maintain one of the top spots in the market and allow us to continue to recruit and retain high quality officers.

Uh, this does represent an additional cost of just below 116,000 in year one of the contract.

As a reminder, the correctional officer contract is set to expire at the end of this year.

So the costs of years two and three are unknown at this point, and they depend on the results of that correctional officer bargaining.

Um in addition to the increase, we have agreed upon that same longevity bonus structure that is contained in a lot of the other sheriff's office contracts.

Um the same structure between a thousand and twenty five hundred dollars at various employment milestones, all the way up through 30 years.

Uh, we do recommend approval by the committee, and we're happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you.

So just back to the longevity bonus you just touched on.

So exactly how does that work?

You hit five years, you're eligible for a one-time bonus of between one and twenty.

And then 2500 at 1520, 25 and 30.

It's a lump sum payment and doesn't add on to your base.

Yes.

And is that bonus pensionable also?

Like, so does that is that count towards the baseline of uh of an earner's pension amount?

Okay.

Right.

So you said that's on par with other units within the sheriff's department.

Has it been found to be an effective bonus uh to to increase retention?

Um, we think so.

They I think it's gonna be a really good baseline for us to review the correctional officer contract this time around because they were the first unit to have it implemented, and now that they're coming up up upon expiration, we have seen better retention of their officers.

Um they've definitely got some retirements coming up, but we've seen um some improvement in the hiring and retention on the front end.

And so for the correctional sergeants and and officers, we've spent a lot of time talking about the challenges with recruitment hiring.

We made some significant adjustments to wages.

Um, and it seems like we're doing that again here.

Are we seeing an improvement in recruitment?

Are we able to hire more?

Is are we addressing the issue?

I think so.

Yes.

We've got um less significant, less vacancies than we did on the correctional officer side when we were coming to committee this time last year.

So hopefully by the end of that next bargain when we come back to renew that contract, we should have some more specific statistics to speak to that.

And we're getting a much larger um applicant pool and candidate pool when we post and when we try to recruit.

So we definitely have the interest um to attract.

Um Chief Klaus has mentioned before that the challenge really is keeping up with the amount of retirement.

So it's the sliding scale of we bring a lot of people on, but then we lose people through retirement.

So, you know, we're we're we're inching through some of that, some of that natural attrition, but um definitely improved.

So maybe this has been covered at L and J.

And I'm sorry if it's if it's retread ground, but I think it would be useful for us to see some of the numbers, like what number of vacancies over the last two, three years, what the applicant numbers have looked like, and are we seeing a decrease in turnover?

Right.

Just some sort of the baseline numbers that indicate if we're being effective in these strategies.

I think that would be helpful for us to understand.

Yeah.

We can certainly prepare that and bring it back.

Comments.

Question.

Member Clark.

Yeah, I agree.

I know, and thank you for all your work on this.

I know we've been really working hard to make sure we can attract, you know, good uh more people in these positions.

And it would be interesting to see like then are they able to host more people at our at our jail because maybe they have more staffing.

Like is how is this all playing out?

So I just what you were saying, I would think it'd be really interesting to see because we we do want to address it.

So we'd like to see is it working and and how it's working.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Item is approved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 8.28 is our finance annual update.

Uh good morning, uh, Chair Frank, members of the committee, Gina Tuzak, Chief Financial Officer.

I am here to provide you the update for the finance department.

Um, very pleased to be here and present this information to you.

So I thought uh I'd start with just a reminder of what the finance department is.

Uh we have a number of um composing elements or composing divisions within the finance department.

We have accounting and financial reporting.

Uh we have the budget team, central financial services, uh, another group under the finance department.

The purchasing, uh county purchasing is under the finance department.

And then we also have the finance employees of the public works department also are underneath the the finance department for the county.

As far as our organization chart, um, we have 25 full-time employees.

We are, I'll say we're small but mighty.

There's a lot that we do.

Um, we have 21 employees in Waukegan, and then we have four in public works, as I talked about, the public works finance department.

Our total budget is about 2.9 million dollars.

Almost all of that is personnel costs.

We do have a little bit in commodities, and then of course, some contractual uh contracts that um are also under our responsibility.

And then this org chart shows you um kind of the hierarchy of the managers, supervisors that um are in the finance department, and those employees that report to those managers and then ultimately reporting to the chief financial officer.

So I was gonna go through each of these uh divisions or departments and talk about what their accomplishments are.

So the purchasing department, which is uh led by Yvette Albaron.

Um very pleased to say that we had 45 full bids and RFPs issued in fiscal year 2025.

We had 815 new vendors that completed registration profiles uh with American Eagle, um, looking for opportunities within the county.

Over 1,500 purchase orders that were issued in the fiscal year.

And to be clear, that means that these purchase orders do go through our purchasing department to ensure appropriate compliance with all the purchasing requirements and policies that we have.

Uh the procurement card program, the spend was over six million dollars with over 272 new cards that were issued in the fiscal year.

Um, and then a new um element that we added in preparation for the workday, the go live was a new travel card program that was implemented.

We issued 137 cards.

They were issued um in September, and the go live uh was at that time.

Uh, obviously the volume of transactions and whatnot is increasing as we as we move forward.

Um, but this is an important um requirement as we move into workday to have uh these expenditures separated from the procurement card um expenditures.

The next department is Central Financial Services, which is led by Shaitin Gibbs.

Uh, we provided administrative support to 17 countywide departments.

Um, and in addition to that, there's also a lot of support for all of the ARPA um work that has to be done.

There was 839 invoices totaling over 50 million dollars that was processed and moved through the appropriate channels for approval and payment by the CFS team.

And then in support of the 17 departments, there was 9,350 invoices that were approved for payment, representing over 116 million that of course supports the county operations and community support through these 17 different departments.

And then well over 500 requisitions that were processed for over 86 million.

And I will note that the CFS team, in addition to these things, they do provide other ancillary ancillary services for departments.

They troubleshoot various issues that are presented along the way, help them with reporting and try to be as helpful as possible to the departments that they support.

And of course, if there's questions along the way for other departments, assist them as well.

And then this shows on this slide who those official CFS customers are, the 17 departments that are supported by this team.

Moving on to the budget team, which is led by Michael Wheeler.

I want to note that we received the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the fiscal year 25 budget.

Very proud of that accomplishment.

As far as the achievements, the annual budget, of course, is something that is very obvious, but I think it's important to kind of think about like what does that entail?

Certainly partnering with the county administrator's office to work with the departments and present the balance budget, but there's a lot of work behind the scenes that goes on, starting with the budget kickoff, assisting departments with questions, making sure that their submissions are complete, doing a round of back and forth of questions before there are even meetings with the county administrator's office to make sure that items are complete and that the information provided is consistent with the instructions.

There were 40 new program requests that were submitted last year.

And the budget team, again, they facilitated the in-person department and agency peer presentation on August 4th.

That was a new feature, very well received.

And they helped with the prep for that, making sure that these submissions again were complete.

There wasn't any missing elements.

And then after those presentations, they helped consolidate all the department and agency recommendations for presentation to the county administrator.

In addition to the annual budget, of course, there's the carryover process.

Ensure that there's understanding of meeting the requirements, and then of course, preparing for presentation to you, the FNA committee.

So besides the annual budget, there's other initiatives that the budget team undertakes.

They do meet with each department at least by monthly, sometimes monthly, and they go through budget to actual status, looking at what the anticipated fiscal year spend will be through that process and also as part of year end.

Of course, there's always budget modifications that arise, and a lot of those turn into line item transfers.

Under the authority of the CFO, that was there was 26.9 million dollars processed in the during this process, which again, each of these line item transfers are separate discussions and analysis and ensuring that appropriate policies are being followed.

And then in addition, another initiative is meeting with departments throughout the year on cost-benefit analysis of various changes in anticipated labor and related costs throughout the year.

For example, uh perhaps in a department, there might be an engineer that is graded at a certain level and then passes his or her certification, obtains the license, and then there might be a request to change the grade of that particular engineer.

So the budget team would work with that department and see how that what are the ramifications from budget perspective, how does that look financially?

So it's kind of an example of something that's done throughout the year outside of the annual budget process.

First of all, I want to acknowledge the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting by the GFOA for the fiscal year 24 audit, something also that we're very proud of.

And then of course the continued bond rating for Moody's and SP Global.

I've got it on here under finance and accounting, but obviously this is a huge accomplishment by the county administrator and the full board as well for all the policies and due diligence that is done throughout the year.

There is the annual report, the fiscal year 24 audit, uh single audit, and all the related filings were completed on time.

An unmodified audit opinion, also known as a clean opinion was received, something also very proud of.

And then on a monthly basis, also reports that are prepared and submitted with regards to claims against the county, the revenue summary, expense summary, various economic indicators.

So the quantity of suppliers that we moved to this electronic platform went from 48% to 55%.

This is quantity of suppliers.

If you were to look at actual dollar spend, it's higher because we're working to get the larger suppliers electronically based as soon as possible.

And of course, that reduces the cost and the carbon footprint of the county and the accounts payable group to have this electronic transmission.

There was also an effort to work with the treasurer's office on the consolidation of nine bank accounts throughout the county.

And just to kind of give you an idea of what does this mean in terms of volume with regards to payments, over 16,000 payments that originated through accounts payable, were paid and approved, went through the full process in the accounting and finance reporting group.

Assistance was provided to LACOM during the transition period.

I think that was the spring or the summer of last year, which included processing their accounts payable and preparing financial reports that they needed.

That check was received and deposited and processed.

And then another matter that was undertaken was audit procedures as defined by the statutes on the South Lake Mosquito Abatement District that was completed in the fall of the fiscal year.

So looking ahead to fiscal year 26, I realize we're already well into that.

What are we working on?

So there's two bullet points here, but I can't emphasize enough that these are summaries.

We are the leader in 13 financial work streams relating to the new ERP system.

And these are finance, there's 13 finance related work streams like accounts payable, procurement.

And the work stream might have a nice consolidation consolidated name like accounts payable, but there are many, many business processes within each work stream.

For example, accounts payable.

We have the process of a straight pay invoice.

We have the process of, well, what if there's a PO and we receive an invoice that matches?

What if there's a PO and we receive an invoice that doesn't match?

There's a whole bunch of scenarios, many business processes that reside within each work stream.

So the amount of effort by the team to get these work streams, get these business processes set up so that the county operations are standardized, streamlined, and simplified is enormous undertaking.

And I'm very proud of the work that my team is doing in these initiatives.

And then we also serve as a subject matter expert in various HR or technical work streams, such as integrations or payroll.

We're not the lead in these, but we do sit in these work streams and provide assistance and financial input as required.

Couple other initiatives that we have underway, in addition to these work streets, of course, there's all the data that has to move from BOSS, our current system into workday.

So I have my teams working on the financial related data and looking at that before it gets transferred over.

And while we're doing that, there is cleanup of various data data elements in preparation for the conversion.

For example, there's over 1300 POs at the end of the fiscal year.

They were reviewed, vetted, reduced to 335 in an effort that we're bringing over good information into workday.

We don't want to bring over purchase orders that should be closed.

So that's an important element of this ERP implementation.

Also, a couple other things to notice.

And I I walk down there and look at the vending machines and see the constant use by uh staff and members of the public.

So it's a been a nice solution that was put in place by the procurement team.

Um the ETSB desolution and the closeout process through March 31st.

Uh, we've been working with um various former employees of ETSB to get matters wrapped up and closed out, paying any outstanding invoices and transferring any funds.

We continue to work on the grant coordinator hiring.

We've been um interviewing candidates, and we look very much forward to our next round, which will be underway shortly for their in-person interviews.

Um, and then we have the fund balance reserve policy that is in the works uh presented to this, I presented to this committee some some framework, and we continue to work on that policy and the best foot forward to address uh modifications.

Um so with that, that concludes my presentation.

Uh but I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you, CFL2C.

Um I made several notes, a few that I'll follow up with you on.

But the one question I wanted to ask for discussion is just on slide four.

You talked about travel cards.

Can you just explain the travel card versus the traditional purchasing card?

And is this something new that we've never had before?

And it's only used for uh certain individuals who have to travel.

Like can you just talk about that and why we're not gonna do that?

Sure.

It's part of the workday go live.

The all of the charges that were coming through on the P card, uh, there's a there's a separation with within workday that's needed.

And because of that, we had to issue a separate card for travel.

So uh we solicited the departments to uh determine who should have the travel card, but the travel card relates to airfare, um, conference registration hotels.

So it's it it works to separate the true travel um expenses from the P card where maybe you pay um a cell phone bill on the P card or you pay um a uh software recurring license fee on the P card.

So that separation has been done.

Uh there was education that went out to employees on which card to use.

I'll admit sometimes there's a little bit of confusion, but we are working uh very diligently to train employees as best as possible to have this travel spend separate from the other traditional P card spends.

Okay, thank you for the explanation.

And so on the old P cards, we were there was some sort of a remuneration, right?

We got some sort of financial benefit for using those cards.

Are we losing some of that by put shifting travel to a different card?

Uh, my understanding is it's it's all it's still under JP Morgan is that the um benefits are still there.

That's my understanding.

It's just a different different card for tracking through work a different mechanism.

The cards look similar, but we were able to be sick to successfully have the cards say travel.

So at least if if a if an employee has both cards, there is a distinguishment that hopefully facilitates its use.

And the oversight and management process is the same.

Yes.

Qualifying expenses to roll up to the manager for approval.

Correct.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Comments or questions?

Member of Littek.

Just a quick question.

Thank you for this presentation.

Um, I think you said 230, some odd new P cards issued last year.

Is that um just curious if that gives a general snapshot?

Does that correlate because they were they were new employees like turnover, or is it was there some other process that um enabled some to acquire P cards?

Sure.

It's it's a um it's a varied process.

For example, when I started, I received a P card, so I'm a new employee.

But we do have situations where a department might ask to provide a P card to um an existing employee, or there might be a change um within the department and somebody leaves, and obviously that P card in their name has to be um terminated and then a new card, new card issued.

So it can be a variety of is that generally an it's the same number each year, about that many, or was that a high, low?

Um, if I if I can defer to uh if you don't mind if I can refer to a veteran, fine, I'm just on the volume that we've consistently had you vet Alberon, our purchasing manager who oversees the P Card program.

If you if you don't mind and like her vote a friend here, good morning, Yvette Aberon purchasing manager.

Yeah, that number is pretty consistent year over year.

Okay, for a variety of factors.

Okay, just curious.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Comments or questions.

No, there's thank you very much.

Thank you.

8.29 is a resolution recommending adoption of a records management policy for like county government owned records.

Motion to approve on this item by member Clark, second by member of Litzig.

Good morning, Lacey Simpson, assistant county administrator.

Jenna Phillip, operations and program coordinator, county administrator's office.

Uh we are here to present the records management policy.

Um before we begin, I just want to provide brief context for why this policy is needed.

Um historically, Lake County did not have a formal process, county, a formal county wide process uh for managing records.

Uh while departments have always been required to follow the Illinois local records at uh practices have varied, and in some cases, records were kept far beyond state approved timelines.

Um this creates unnecessary liability, storage burdens, and operational inefficiencies.

Uh this policy establishes a clear consistent framework for how records are created, maintained, stored, and disposed of.

Um, it also outlines departmental responsibilities, reinforces legal protections for records under FOIA, litigation or audit holds, and ensure coordination with EIT for secure destruction of electronical records.

Um we did present this to the policy review team.

They had no comments or concerns.

Um, and I will also like to note that uh um an administrative directive and training will follow to support the implementation of this policy.

Um we're just asking for uh staff is recommending approval of this policy.

Thank you.

Um this is a new policy.

We did not have one for departmental record retention in the past.

That is correct.

Correct.

Okay, great, Chair Hart.

Uh, I just want to say thank you to staff for putting this together.

Um, board members who've been here for let's say about eight years, uh, may remember that we uh one of the conference rooms up here was just filled with um banker boxes, if you will, right, with old records, and then we have the filing cabinets also filled with old records.

Um we did not need those old records, so there's uh it took some time for staff to go through and determine what could uh we could get rid of.

And it's not just like, hey, it takes up space, it's also an issue.

Um, we always want to be responsive when people have FOIA requests.

Um FOIA requests are usually, you know, hey, what what do you have on this?

Well, if we still have records from the 1980s, then we need to supply those records.

Um, and I'm not using that year lightly.

So um it's really important uh for us to be to stay up to date to get rid of those records that we don't use.

Um I just think it it's it's better for space, it's better for um sort of the work requirements, and I really appreciate uh you guys bringing this forward.

I don't even think that this was something that we had requested.

Staff had had recognized that we were missing a records retention policy, and uh so just really appreciate your work on this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair, member of Litzi.

Um this sounds very much needed, and um of course happy to support it.

I I had when reading the description um or the attachment and the agenda, it seemed like because it was referring to like it will comply with all state laws.

So I had been under the assumption that there was some new state law, but there's not.

It's just we haven't really been um keeping up to date with when we can get rid of old records.

Okay, yeah, this sounds um much needed.

That was a polite way of saying we were out of compliance.

Right.

Well, we were overly compliant.

Overly compliant, okay.

I do just want to say it's not that departments were out of compliance, it's that every department's handling it a little bit differently.

So this is kind of bringing us all together and following one consistent process.

Okay, thank you for saying standardization, which we didn't have.

Okay.

Thank you for clarifying.

Member Clark.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I'm glad to see this.

I'm always interested in talking about how we store things and the proper storage.

So just to walk through this, like from what I read it.

So it sounds like everyone, every department's gonna come up with they have to come up with like guidelines for their department to figure out what it says.

It says um all departments shall develop and submit a record retention schedule.

So that's what all departments will, and then they have to look at the records and then they see which ones they can uh not keep any more.

So my questions are what happens if they just I mean it sounds like it says in here you have to destroy it unless there's a reason and it lists the reasons.

So what happens if they don't and um how do they destroy it?

I'm just curious.

So there's a process, you basically have to get a certificate of destruction.

Um, and that's where you have to go to the state, and there's a form of whole process for that.

Once you get that certificate of destruction, then that's when you would coordinate with like IT vis electronical.

Um, and that's basically given IT that pass.

Here's what the state has approved for you to destroy, and I we will coordinate with IT to get that process completed.

So they do the actual destruction part.

Yeah.

And for physical records, then depending on the the records, it could be um that they get short, they have to contact a shredding company to destroy them.

Um and what if somebody doesn't want to do it?

Because according to this policy, they have to do it.

But what if the department's like, uh yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, we don't suspect that departments aren't going to follow the policy.

We'll say the best part about this policy was that we put it through the policy process that we've established, and we have received no comments as as all the departments are on the same page, which was was pretty it was a breath of fresh air.

So everybody's on the same page with respect to this.

We don't suspect there's going to be any challenges with not following the policy.

But if there are, I mean, that's what that's what that's what staff will, that's what staff will do based on the policy that we've adopted, and the board has supported us on.

I just have one more question just because I'm really interested in this.

So it says I didn't know.

So it says that like you just said that so it says all records have to ask this commission.

So is that what you're talking about to get to like when they destroy any records, they have to go to Illinois.

Yes, and then they have to get this permission thing.

So yeah, that it seems like a lot of of work.

So, but that's in here, and that's the Illinois state law.

Correct.

Okay.

So yeah, I saw that.

I'm like, wow, that's more than I thought.

All right, thank you.

Glad to see it.

Any other questions?

Comments.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

8.29 is proved.

8.30 is our county administration annual update.

Good morning.

Patrice Sutton, County Administrator.

Um, as a reminder, these annual updates are spelled out in the county board rules.

And what each of the appointed departments are supposed to do is to give you an update on current projects and what's on our horizon.

So it's kind of current and future oriented.

Um, and then we offer that opportunity to all the electeds and independents, and they can do so as well if they so choose.

So I'm honored today to kind of give you an update of what's been going on in the county administrator's office.

Um, we all have a tendency to kind of go back to our accomplishments.

So unfortunately, I am going to um violate the requested um format of these presentations.

The other thing that we ask our departments to do is to report on new program requests so that you have the ability to know whether or not those NPRs that we proposed have actually had the um outcome that they've uh were intended to um come out with.

Um this is also not required as part of the presentation, but I did want to show it this year.

We do have some very key departures um that I want to acknowledge.

Uh the chief communications officer over there on the right, which oversees our communications division, Tammy Chapman will be retiring on June 8th.

We do have that position posted, um, and it'll be posted.

It's on some national job boards um for government communications and it will be open through the end of the month.

So we do have an active recruitment for that position.

Um, as many of you you worked with Abby Krakow within that communications division.

She's also departed.

Um we are holding that position right now.

Um, if we can fill this chief communications officer quickly, um, I'd really like to have that open position so that the CCO can walk into the role and kind of have a little bit of flexibility on some structure to the office.

If it's looking like we're going to have a lengthy recruitment process for that position, we will, of course, go ahead and fill that position.

But with those shortages, we did have to kind of pull back on some of the communication that you as board members do.

We do normally do two newsletters on a monthly basis.

We are having to call that back to just one.

One of your newsletters is fairly standard.

It's kind of a template kind of look and feel.

We can do that one efficiently.

It's the other one where we actually kind of spell it out for 19 different board members that is very arduous, which was primarily Abby's role.

And so we've asked that and we appreciate your accommodation of us doing that one standardized newsletter per month.

I have some data too that's interesting that I'll show you from the communications department as we move on.

The other open position right now is the executive assistant.

We did lose our longtime executive assistant, Sonia Hernandez, and that position is also open and being actively recruited.

What's not on here is the internal auditor position.

We did actively recruit that earlier starting last year and earlier this year.

Yet again, we did get to the end of that recruitment and not successfully hire the appropriate person.

This role is very unique.

They have to have the expertise to be able to create that internal audit program.

They have to have the consultative nature to be able to work with departments in a way that's not punitive, but rather is consultative and to look out for the best interests of Lake County and look for those operational efficiencies as well as other improvements that can be made.

So we are again interviewing for this position and have some awesome candidates.

So we are working really, really diligently to fill that critical role.

Again, really not supposed to do this, but we did a ton of stuff in fiscal year 2025, and I just can't help but to shout that out.

As you just heard, this policy review and update is critical.

It's been ongoing.

There's a lot to do.

So we are kind of you're you're seeing that we're coming to you on a fairly periodic basis.

Um, we hope to pick up the speed there because there are a lot of policies that are out of date and need some update.

Um, I really want to make sure that I acknowledge that a lot of the things that are on this slide are not just county administration.

Some of these we've kind of assisted with the process, some of these we've spearheaded as the project manager, but of course, there are many departments that are involved in a lot of these.

So the employee safety and emergency preparedness one is one that we partnered very much so with the risk department and HR.

But I do want to shout out Lacey Simpson ever since she landed in this role.

We this has been one of the things that we've asked her to do, and I really feel like you've even probably been able to see the um the significant effort that we've put there trying to get our um we've begun the drills again and we've gotten a lot of training out there.

Um so I really do feel like we're doing a good job of making sure that our employees feel safe and are feeling prepared in the case of an emergency.

Um obviously we work with a lot of different partners.

Sheridan Crossing is one of the ones that came to fruition.

So that was a big success in fiscal year 25.

Um, Ruth Ann Hall has been overseeing the Americans with Disabilities Act, comprehensive transition planning.

Every government organization has to have a plan, and that is nearly to its completion.

So you'll be hearing about that.

There's a tremendous amount of things on that list and a lot of things that we can do to make ourselves more accessible.

Obviously, the opioid settlement funds person, um, Ashley Watson is actually part of our staff as well.

She works with a lot of our departmental partners as well as community partners to oversee that fund.

Um we are trying to pay attention to our internal services and making sure that we're meeting the needs of our departments.

Uh, we did do an internal services survey last year, and the results were really high.

There was 90% satisfaction rate with most of our internal services.

So just need to really make sure that we're staying on top of that.

Obviously, ARPA has been a major project for us for several years and continues this year.

The facilities naming policy is one of the policies that were able to get over the finish line.

The 911 consolidation support.

Matt Myers serves on the Jetsby board.

I serve on the LACOM board.

It did successfully go live back in October and November, but there's an ongoing effort to support the counties, the county and the sheriff's office on those boards.

And then finally, you hear about the successes of the digital growth initiative if you tune in to the tech committee.

Emergency management is a really important component of our department.

They were named the 2025 EMA of the year by the Illinois ESMA.

So that was a humongous accomplishment and just speaks to the work that those four people do.

You know, they are a planning organization and as well as an emergency response organization, and they spend their time doing a lot of both.

They did host 16 trainings and did a bunch of exercises.

They have they have volunteers that assist with them and have put in over 1,500 hours during 2025.

They also manage and oversee our county radio program, which this year included a new program request for new radios.

And like I said, they do a lot of operational documents and templates, not only for Lake County, but also with our municipal partners.

So they are probably one of our departments that collaborate the most with our municipal partners because planning and being prepared for emergency situations is really important.

And then finally, they are a department that takes humongous advantage of every intern capability and are very proud to state that they've had four that have gone on to pursue this career.

So they're very proud of that.

Communications, a bunch of statistics up there for you.

You can see that the 52 news releases.

We did put the open rate on there that has a 43% open rate.

We put out 437 board member newsletters with a 33% open rate, very significant website and social media touches.

So those are very significant, a lot of events.

Obviously, recording and then indexing these committee meetings is very time consuming.

But now you can go in and watch those and they're all indexed.

You can go click on the specific item that you want to watch.

So they put a lot of time and effort into that.

And I do think that that is an extremely transparent benefit to our residents.

Communications did want to note that they got a 93% customer service satisfaction rate when we did do that internal services survey.

Sustainability, Robin Hallgrim reports primarily to the PVZ and E committee, but I'm sure that you're all aware that our tree initiative has resulted in over 2,000 native trees being planted.

That bird-friendly design was something that she worked on with the planning division.

Her roadmap to decarbonization is truly well known and recognized within the region.

Okay, so then moving on to what are our current initiatives.

We've got the ARPA support, America 250.

I've got a separate slide for that.

You know, I am at the project sponsor for the ERP system implementation, and so I stay actively engaged in that.

The federal funding contingency planning and the actual implementation of that is something that our department is working on diligently.

Economic development projects, those pop up out of nowhere.

They're not something that we can plan.

Particular shout out to Matt Myers and all of the department heads that he's had to convene on short notice for several different initiatives that have popped up over the last years.

Our belonging at work initiative is coming to an end, and you'll be hearing about that.

We are continuing to develop an employee leadership and mentorship program.

Obviously, the remote work policy that you recently passed was instrumental to now really looking at space planning and making sure that being we're being intelligent about our footprint.

Emergency preparedness, as I mentioned, something that I just don't think we can do enough of.

And particularly particularly for our employees.

I did participate in CPR and first aid training.

I was one of the first classes.

So I'm really, really proud that we're bringing that back and making sure that our employees and our departments have at least people within each department that have that training.

Obviously, we're about to kick off the annual budget process, and then we're continuing on that internal auto recruitment.

Our America 250 program, I really want to shout this out.

This wasn't something that was on the work plan.

However, I personally am very proud of the program that we put together, and I want to thank you for supporting this.

Um, Member Clark for really being a champion, member Hewitt.

Um, you guys are the ones that actually, you know, spurred us into doing something.

Um, and I'm really proud of the various things that we did.

Umcial media history posts, I don't know if you're seeing those, but we are putting some really interesting tidbits about Lake County history out on our website.

Um the historical places map is something that our communications team put a tremendous amount of effort and research into.

It's really cool if you haven't had a chance to go take a look at that.

It has places on it that I didn't know existed, and I'm looking forward to kind of knocking them off of my list.

The art and essay contest was a fabulous idea, but it does take a tremendous amount of work.

So I really want to shout out Jana Phillips for her help on that.

The Independence Academy came to a conclusion yesterday.

Really want to thank Chair Hart and President Volitsek for um, you know, going through that graduation process.

Um, member Clark, members Clark and Casbin were also there to celebrate the fact that we had 22 um residents that wanted to learn about Lake County.

And I I can't wait to share with you just the phenomenal feedback that we got from them and um just the fulfillment that our employees got from putting that on.

So it truly was, I really think an amazing experience that we're probably gonna have to talk about whether or not we want to expand and continue.

Um, and then finally, this is all gonna culminate on with the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8th.

So again, um, we didn't have a lot of time to put this together.

I think that we've done a lot of a lot and um, you know, put together a really great program that has acknowledged how county government fits into the structure of our 250th anniversary.

Um, again, just continuing to update their operational plans.

They are a planning organization, they're diligent about it.

Um, sustainability, obviously, our green business program is just ramping up.

Uh, they're also working on noxious weeds, roadmap to decarbonization, continuing that tree initiative, and then really trying to electrify our county fleet, vehicle fleet.

Um, an update on the new program requests.

In 2024, we asked for an expansion to the FOIA records management system.

Originally, all departments except for the sheriff's department went live with our system.

Um, and then we expanded it in 2024 to the sheriff's office.

We really do believe that this has um just led to a much more efficient process.

FOIA's uh are continuing to grow and having this system to help us negotiate that and keep track of it and just have those records in a way that are very easily organized, has been absolutely critical to the expansion of what we've seen in FOIA requests.

Uh the regional tree initiative, I already mentioned, we completed that one as well with that urban study.

In 2025, we did ask for funding for a Waukegan rooftop solar project.

You actually have recently approved that contract.

I will give you a little bit of a heads up that we've run into some challenges and may have to cut back on the scope due to some um restrictions that we have with the roofing where we were hoping to be able to install that those uh solar panels.

So we will keep you posted on that, but it is uh a project that is ongoing and is in progress.

And then in 2026, we asked to uh replace all of our STARCOM radios, and that is also in progress and ongoing.

And with that, I've completed my presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Sutton.

Amazing updates.

Um, I have some thoughts and comments.

Chair Hart, you had some.

Thank you.

I just wanted to circle back on your America 250.

Uh, and again, thank you.

And and I'll say I I think I've said it a couple of times.

When I heard this idea, I thought, oh, that's going to be a lot on staff.

And I was just really like, I don't know, you guys.

And uh, you know, Jennifer and Diane, you really were like, no, I think it's important.

And then staff is like, you know what, we have some really cool ideas that we can do.

And so yesterday I I was at the Forest Beserve.

We had a really nice um ceremony that staff put together.

And I had several people come to me, and the last woman said, this was so excellent.

And she said, and I mean like excellent.

Every single department we visited, every single staff person we spoke to were highly professional, highly passionate, um, loved what they did, took the time to talk to us.

She said, right down to the person who was um mowing at one of the departments.

I think it was uh at DOT, you know, all the way up to county administration, and just was couldn't say enough about um how fortunate we are to have such tremendous staff here in Lake County.

So I I just really want to say thank you to county administration.

I know Patrice, you're saying, well, I'm really not supposed to go off script like this, but or not off script, but go around it.

But I I'm really pleased that you that you are showing us uh all of the great work that county administration and the rest of the staff are doing.

Um, and this was such a terrific idea.

So, Jessica, kudos to you for coming up with this academy.

Um, you know, people really loved it.

And then I'm you'll see that we're going to be welcoming um art students, the the winners of the art contest on Tuesday.

So that's just another fun thing that uh that we're doing to celebrate um the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

So thank you.

Thanks, you guys.

Well said, Chair Hart.

I want to echo and repeat some of what you said, which is uh members Willitzik, Clark, Hewitt.

When you guys were first throwing out ideas about, hey, we could do this, there's some things we need to do, we should do.

In my head, I'm thinking this is a really short notice, short time frame.

This feels like something that, hey, we're throwing at staff, like sometimes, you know, there's there's questions that come up about you know, man hours and things like that.

But the enthusiasm by which the county administration team responded and came and came back with some filled in the blanks on some really amazing programs is super impressive.

And um, regarding the academy, I think, as you said, Chair Hart, it's an opportunity not only for participants to learn about our government, but for our department teams to express the pride that they have in their work.

And I think it's phenomenal and something we should definitely have a conversation about continuing.

So thank you for highlighting that and thank you to you guys for leading us in in this effort.

Um other comments or questions.

Member Clark.

Thank you for this presentation.

I have to say it is amazing.

I mean, I all the work, all the projects, and I'm so proud of all of them.

And you were the leader.

Like, and I really want to thank you for all your work on this.

That, you know, because it's easy for us to think of some ideas, but to implement all of our ideas.

And I just remember, you know, when you're going through everything from the safety plans to everything.

I mean, I remember having these discussions here, and you know, we can talk, but you you did it and I all the things.

So I really want to thank you.

Um, you know, Debbie Kennedy, Mr.

Matt Myers, Ruthanne, Lazy, and in and all the staff.

I mean, for working on this and to really make this, and and I think that really came through with the the people yesterday.

I mean, talking to people that came through and met all of our staff, went to the different departments.

They're their just pride in Lake County government was shared by our staff, by us, and they come, but it really comes from the top and it comes from there.

And I just can't thank you enough.

And I hope that some of these America 250 things um, because throughout my whole district, everywhere I run into, people are like, I love seeing your logo, I love the excitement.

I love the map, the social media post.

I've learned so much about Lake County history.

I don't know who's putting this together.

But I hope maybe like these these maps and things, maybe we could keep it going a little bit just as a resource, maybe somebody uh, I mean, even just have it like posted.

Um, because it's been just fascinating and such a really important reminder of the declaration of independence of this country and you know, and good government.

So I want to just thank you from you know from top to bottom.

And I don't know how you do it.

You have to let us know if you need more staff.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Hewitt.

I just want to say thank you to everyone that was involved, whether it was just one of our regular employees or staff members and such, but everyone took a piece of this to heart.

And because of everybody, they made all of this happen.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I don't see any other comments or questions.

Thank you for the great updates.

Thank you very much.

Uh 10.1.

We have a motion to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, you had something else.

I do have a county administration.

I apologize.

We'll hold off on that.

Go ahead, County Mr.

Um.

As you well know, um, personnel actions would come to this committee for appointed departments, but there are departments that have independent authority.

It's been my practice since taking this role to share those with you when independent um departments make these moves.

So I wanted to report to you that um the sheriff's office is asking for a coast clinician to be reclassed from an eight to a 10.

This is currently a vacant position and has been extremely difficult to fill.

Um, the human resources, they have, even though they don't have to, they have been working with human resources to grade this appropriately.

Um, it is a um, it's really just not applicable to have it be an eight.

The has been extremely challenging to find someone that would take this role as an eight.

So they do agree, the human resources department does agree that this position is better um graded at a 10.

So they did not need your approval.

It is moving forward, but I just wanted to let you know.

And then also in the courts, um, they have been trying to hire a staff psychologist.

Um during the comp study, the Baker Tilley um team agreed that certain positions don't really make sense to have a grade.

This is one of those positions that does require a PhD, a tremendous amount of schooling.

And um, the grade that we had it in was extremely challenging.

I've they um again, the courts don't need to necessarily work with us, but they have been.

Um, and they personally came to me and tried to get a slightly elevated um salary to propose to someone that they were trying to hire into this position, and they still were unable to get that person with the salary.

So they um are moving this position to being an ungraded position, which is consistent with how the health department treats these types of medical professionals.

Um, I do want to give you a heads up that while this request has not yet come in.

It is anticipated if that if they hire the new psychologist position that is vacant currently at a higher rate, there is someone that is in that role and then a supervisor to those positions that will likely need to be adjusted to keep some um parity within the positions.

So again, this isn't um something that you can act on.

They have the authority to move forward with it, but I just wanted to report it to you.

Thank you, Ms.

Harris Hutton.

And I think we agree with your instinct on alerting us and informing us, even though it doesn't require action by the committee.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, now to 10.1.

Uh motion to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter.

Motion by member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Roll call, please.

Member Clark.

Chair Frank.

Hi.

Member Hewitt.

Voice Chair Park.

Aye.

Member Peterson.

Then member Bulitzer.

Motion is approved.

We'll go into executive session.

Into regular session uh 11.2 is committee action authorizing a reclassification of position 29021, TMC manager in the division of transportation from salary 10 to salary 13 with a one-time increase base pay of the increment by 25.8%.

Motion on this item by a member Clark, second by member Hewitt.

Any further discussion, comments, or questions?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

11.2 is approved.

Any member remarks, comments, or questions.

Seeing none, we are adjourned until July 9th.

Thank you, everyone.